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Update...well he isn't sick so to speak...just has the growths as far as I can tell. My LFS guy recommended a cleaning wrasse that would eat off the growths...I wasn't to sold on this idea...plus what would the wrasse(dr. fish) live on...really I have 1 swimming and 1 bottom fish. I'll give another update next week. I might just be stuck with a disfigured clown...kind of reminds me of myself.

And it's the ocean flowing in our veins
Oh..That it's the salt that's in our tears
Oh..Cause we could have come so very far
Oh..In at least as many years
Take the highway through the Great Divide - T.A. and T.M.

To extrapolate on Coach's post, cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) are obligate parasite eaters, that is, the only thing they can eat are the parasites on marine fish. Thus they soon starve in an aquarium, and as Coach said, they should remain in the ocean.

Dave

When a finger points to the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.

Omnia mutantur nihil interit.

The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go

To extrapolate on Coach's post, cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) are obligate parasite eaters, that is, the only thing they can eat are the parasites on marine fish. Thus they soon starve in an aquarium, and as Coach said, they should remain in the ocean.

Dave

Ditto with Dave. However, while they are obligate parasite feeders in the wild, there are not IME in aquariums. I have seen plenty of them feeding on frozen mysis/brine, pellets and even nori. I do believe though that cleaner wrasses are a bit like mandarins in that they cannot survive without a large proportion of parasites in their diet.

Unless you are very experiences, have a large tank and lots of large fish, you should not even attempt a cleaner wrasse.

However, there are some who seem to be able to obligate feeders to consume other foods and have had some success: (videos of it feeding are on the last page I think)

As I said in my post...it didn't sound like a good idea...and read that they disrupt the ocean reefs when harvested...essential part of the food webs...anyway even a neon goby sounds like a bad idea. I'm just gonna wait it out.

And it's the ocean flowing in our veins
Oh..That it's the salt that's in our tears
Oh..Cause we could have come so very far
Oh..In at least as many years
Take the highway through the Great Divide - T.A. and T.M.